"What the fuck. She just waltzed in and demanded us to 'do our jobs' like she's our boss. She didn't even ask for our names! I thought she was pretty, but she's just a bitch."
"Joren!" Glenn turned his head and shot Joren a fierce gaze. He had never seen Glenn so serious unless they were engaged in combat. "Watch what you say! I understand how you feel, but these people are not to be disrespected!"
Regardless of personal opinion, a commoner would never bad mouth a Noble if they value their life. Joren, who has never dealt with them didn't understand this and it didn't help that Glenn bad-mouthed Viscount Harold who was the only Noble he sort of worked for. Even in his past life. bad-mouthing a person in power wouldn't be a problem since people had freedom of speech.
"Sorry, it won't happen again. Can I ask why though?" He already knew the reason why, or at least he assumed he knew. Although people had freedom of speech and wouldn't be executed for bad-mouthing an influential figure, that only applied to certain countries. Not to mention, he's read enough history books and novels to understand how aristocracy works, he only wondered if it functions like his past world.
"First thing you have to understand is that Nobles are the most important figures in the kingdom. There are other people but when it comes to birth status, Nobles are at the top, only under Royalty." As Joren assumed, his information was correct when Glenn explained this to him.
"I'm sure you know that Nobles have rankings right?"
"Yeah, from lowest to highest it goes Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, and Duke."
"Correct. I'm sure you also know that the higher the ranking, the more influential and powerful the Noble is. But did you know that at the rank of Count, nobles get a surname added to their last name and that is 'Von'? This means that our client is the daughter of a Noble who is at least a Count. One wrong word and it can be your head. In fact, she's a daughter of a Marquis as she bears the last name Solight."
When Glenn finished explaining, the weight of his actions dwelled on him. While he truthfully didn't care about that, he did worry about his companions and didn't want them to be killed because of his actions, so he held his tongue.
Nightfall came and it was time to make camp. The knights set up a perimeter and two of them patrolled the area. The other three set up the tents and acclamations for their Young Lady.
The Man walked out of the carriage and held out his hand for Tessa to hold as she exited the carriage as well.
"Allow me to get dinner prepared for you Young Lady." The man spoke
"Yes, thank you, Sir Carter," Tessa spoke and she smiled wryly and walked into her tent.
Sir Carter turned to Joren and his group and spoke. "I apologize for my rudeness but I hope you have brought your own food as we don't have enough to share."
"No worries, we came prepared," Glenn affirmed
"That's good. Ah, forgive me, I never asked for your names. You may address me as Sir Carter, Lady Tessa's personal guard." He put his hand on his chest and bowed slightly. It was so slight that it was almost unnoticeable.
"Nice to meet you, Sir Carter. My name is Glenn, this is..." Glenn introduced everyone and once he was finished he looked at Joren with a slightly shocked expression.
"How old are you Joren?" Sir Carter asked
"Thirteen," Joren replied casually, not addressing Sir Carter with respect but being disrespectful either. Sir Carter noticed this but didn't care to address it.
"You are talented for your age." He turned around and got out cooking supplies from a storage ring to prepare dinner for his people.
"Come on, we should eat as too," Glenn suggested.
Sir Carter announced that dinner was prepared and Tessa walked out of her tent. She sat down on a stool that was prepared for her and Sir Carter handed over her dinner.
"Ughh, we still have to eat these travel rations? Why can't we get something good to eat?" She complained as she used her spoon to play with her soup.
"I apologize Young Lady but this is the only type of food that won't go bad from long travels. We can eat something nice when we arrive at the next city over. Until then, please bear with it."
"Given our current situation, I have no choice but to deal with it. On the run from my own family, needing to disguise myself, I can't even stay in the same place for a certain amount of time in fear of being captured. The least the Gods can do for me is provide some good food but even that's too much to ask for." She took small bites out of her soup and gagged every time she swallowed.
"Young Lady I know times are hard right now, but please stay strong. Once we reach your brothers in the Royal Capital, everything will be okay." Sir Carter reassured her.
"If we make it there that is. Our pursuers know we are on our way there. Abandoning our carriage wouldn't do us any good since they put a tracking insect inside me. The little money that we have is used to buy all this shit." She pointed to the travel essentials like tents, pots, and the sort. "And the rest of it is going to those commoners over there who probably won't be of any help."
"Please have faith Young Lady. I have assessed their strength and while they aren't as strong as me, they are strong enough to be useful. How useful depends on how skilled they are, but even the youngest out of them seems capable." Sir Carter said
"The boy? How strong is he?" Tessa didn't care for them at all. She had no regard for commoners and preferred to stay away from them. She didn't even care to know their names, however, she was curious to know how strong they were.
"The strongest among them is the man with brown hair. His name is Glenn and he's at the 3rd circle mid-rank." Sir Carter then told Tessa all of their names and cultivation levels.
"He's thirteen and is already in the middle of 2nd circle?! Impossible!" She refused to believe that a commoner was that strong at the mere age of 13. She herself was in the 2nd circle mid-rank and was already 16 years old.
"The mana around him is also very abundant like mana loves him. He will be very strong in the future if his path is laid out well. Young Lady, you could make a powerful ally in him." Sir Carter wasn't like Tessa when it came to status. He himself was the son of a Baron and also viewed himself as superior to commoners, but he wasn't like those in the higher ranks of nobility who loathe commoners.
Tessa looked at him and watched as he ate the loaf of bread in his hands. 'He is cute.' she thought to herself 'but he's a commoner, not worthy of someone like me.' "He could be a useful knight but that's not something we should worry about right now."
"Yes, Young Lady."
They all finished their dinner and went to sleep. Two people took the first watch, one from the knights and Arnold from the mercenaries while the others rested and waited for their turn.
'Interesting. So she's running away from her home, trying to seek aid from her brothers in the capital. An internal feud perhaps?' Joren was thinking to himself while Derry clutched onto him like a body pillow. 'Let's see how this plays out. I don't want to get involved in a family feud.' He closed his eyes and stuffed his face in Derry's chest.
...
"Awrooo!" The sound of a wolf who had been stabbed in the back cried out as it drew its last breath. A long, silver sword was lodged in the wolf's back while a person stood over it.
"That's the last one," Joren spoke as he removed his sword from the wolf and wiped the blood off. He had gotten a new sword before they started their next job as his other one broke.
The mercenaries and knights were surrounded by the bodies of mana beasts, each of them dead as they all were hostile towards everyone. Tessa was still in the carriage alongside Sir Carter as he didn't bother to come out and aid them, not that they needed it.
It had been a week since they took on this escorting request and everything was going good so far. They hadn't come across a single bandit and only happened to engage with the mana beasts they had just slain because they decided to take a shortcut which was In mana beast territory.
"Just a little further and we'll be out of the mana beast territory. Once we're out, we'll make camp for the evening and continue in the morning." Sir Carter spoke from the carriage window.
'Time to start my plan. Operation Redhead is now commencing.' Joren rubbed his hands together and smiled menacingly.